Tabaimo

Japanese Commuter Train.

On the Dark Side of Japanese Animation

…By combining iconic symbols from Japanese culture with images of the everyday, Tabaimo reveals the contrast between the smooth veneer of Japan’s urban life and the turbulent problems embedded within it. Incorporating digitally scanned drawings with the palette from Hokusai woodcuts (1760-1849), Tabaimo conflates time and specific histories.

…It’s the same for all my works: it’s not so much about controlling the viewer’s point of view as it is about setting up a space which will encourage viewers to be proactive in how they look at the work. What interests me is the idea of setting up a space — be it narrow, dark, or on a slope — somewhere which is not easy to stand, somewhere which makes a variety of demands on how you approach it: basically an environment which denies you a comfortable viewing experience. I deliberately create those kinds of environments for the viewer to view the work in…

It is impossible to look at Tabaimo’s latest batch of drawings at the Gallery Koyanagi in Ginza without feeling a slight shiver of queasiness. Crawling in and crawling out, legs, wings and mandibles dig into and dine on a series of folded hands drawn across long sheets of washi paper…